A too busy woman in her 40's who is juggling family and careers and faith and community and wishes she had more time to write - this is me attempting to make my wish come true!

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Things I learned from IKEA

Or more specifically.... things I have learned from the last 2 days of assembling IKEA products in my office (which comes under "Other duties as required" in the non-profit Executive Directors job description):

1) IKEA is always right - you are not. Accept it.2) there are no missing pieces and there are no extra pieces - "disposing of" any extra pieces you may end up with is a viable option - going back to step 33 is not.3) there is a right hole for everything4) do not try and put the wrong thing in the wrong hole5) an allen key looks like an easy to use tool - until your head is wedged inside a small cupboard trying to tighten some darn thing6) do not read all the instructions at the beginning7) go page by page, number by number8) no need to know there are 7843 steps when you are only on step 3 of the office chair assembly - you will realise this soon enough9) swearing may help you but it doesn't get things built any quicker10) also if you should not be swearing in your workplace - like if there may be small children within earshot - just string a bunch of IKEA product names together - "HemnesMillbergetKalax" in my case.11) when in doubt - rather than snapping pieces of the product in two over your knee in frustration (#HemnesMillbergetKalax) - facetime your husband for advice / instruction / buddy breathing12) if you just follow the instructions - accept some help along the way - it will all be fine (mostly) actually it's pretty genius how it is all packaged and planned. Dammit - is there anything those Swedes are not superior at? Lessons for life in there somewhere I am sure.We now have 4 desks for 4 Directors in one small office - we are auditioning for "Tiny Offices - How to run a Non-profit from a shoebox".

Even JOY is in a tight squeeze ;)

My messy corner bottom right

We need a new spot for the lamp ;)

Surprisingly it works - the others are often on the road and with the bose speaker playing some odd Apple music mix and the diffuser diffusing "calming" oils, the sun filtering through the blinds and the geothermal cooling doing it's thang... we'll be fine.

Come by, with for coffee, anytime - just don't expect to sit down. Adjö to you ;)